colbert and stewart, part 2
(part 2 of 2)
which leads me back to something else i read in the interview. stewart, in a way, laments the fact that we are a two party system and a majority of people will vote based on the party line rather than on what is really best for the nation. i think that is true. everyone tells you, "don't vote green party, it's like throwing your vote away." that is deceiving. i used to believe that but now i don't. i don't think it is throwing a vote away to vote for a candidate of another party. if more people realised that they were not throwing their vote away, i think third parties would have a greater opportunity to make their voice heard.
i think we are too obsessed with having our voices count. maybe if we just stopped caring about voting for "the lesser of the two evils because we really don't have a choice" then maybe we would find ourselves with more options. of course, it's difficult to make 200 million people think this way.
since i arrived in the UK, i've found myself constantly having to defend myself because i am an american (or as my friend from chili says, "not american. you are from the united states." so decided to call myself, "united statesean"). i often find myself having to tell people that yes, america has a history (someone once had the nerve to claim that we had no history). yes, we did rape the native americans, but i didn't do it personally. and yes, our president's administration is taking the lead role in destroying the world.
however.
while i have to say, yes and yes and yes. i also comeback by saying, "and what about your country? blair is no better. he is worse. he chooses to wait on hand and foot and do whatever the US administration says." i find it difficult when people feel they have to tell me that my country is very bad and doing very wrong things when their country isn't innocent of doing wrong, either. however, at least their country doesn't deny global warming.
interestingly enough, i found myself in a reverse role recently. i was talking to an acquaintance about the bush administration. it was the first time, in a long time, that i had allowed myself to be part of a heated political discussion. this guy, who was the same age me, was defending the president for going into iraq and toppling the hussein regime. i said, "yes but what about the 600,000 some-odd civilians that were reported dead as a result of the occupation?" anyhow, i won't go into detail about the argument but he couldn't see how appointing tony snow as the press secretary was wrong. he also thought that the people in the middle east just wanted to blow things up. all i could say was that i was sorry that he felt the way he did about my government and i also mentioned that my "forefathers" wrote that if we didn't like our government, we could overthrow it (unlike in england where they celebrate guy fawkes day, where they burn an effigy of the man who tried to overthrow parliament) and start a new one.
it is funny, but it seems like i do a lot more talking about the US administration outside of the country than when i was in the country. i feel like i walk around with a sign that says, "tell me why my country is wrong. i am dumb and ignorant and need to be enlightened."
returning to colbert and stewart, though, i sometimes find myself so surprised at how influential they have become. i used to watch the daily show back when kilborn was the host. in those days i always confused, colbert, roco, and carrell. of course, i was just a middle school kid then and i would only catch the next day reruns when i was home sick from school. when stewart took over the show, i was upset. i thought kilborn was really funny and i didn't think that stewart was funny at all. i remember the advertisements during this "transitional period" and for some reason he was in a helicopter...
needless to say, after a while he really grew on me. although, i was always a casual viewer, watching a rerun here or there. i suppose like everyone else, there was a point when i realised that the news wasn't really news at all. it was all a game and i was being played by the media machine. so i gave up on television news. then i rediscovered the daily show and soon after the colbert report was born, and i realised that fake news was really the only reliable news source on television because they didn't care and they don't care still.
i guess that goes back to what i was saying about caring about voting and making your voice heard. maybe we think we have a lot to lose but we really don't. if at this point we feel like our vote doesn't matter, then what does it matter if it seems like we are just "throwing away" our votes? we're already doing it by voting for someone we don't really care for.
so the moral of the story is...stop caring. have a nice day.
which leads me back to something else i read in the interview. stewart, in a way, laments the fact that we are a two party system and a majority of people will vote based on the party line rather than on what is really best for the nation. i think that is true. everyone tells you, "don't vote green party, it's like throwing your vote away." that is deceiving. i used to believe that but now i don't. i don't think it is throwing a vote away to vote for a candidate of another party. if more people realised that they were not throwing their vote away, i think third parties would have a greater opportunity to make their voice heard.
i think we are too obsessed with having our voices count. maybe if we just stopped caring about voting for "the lesser of the two evils because we really don't have a choice" then maybe we would find ourselves with more options. of course, it's difficult to make 200 million people think this way.
since i arrived in the UK, i've found myself constantly having to defend myself because i am an american (or as my friend from chili says, "not american. you are from the united states." so decided to call myself, "united statesean"). i often find myself having to tell people that yes, america has a history (someone once had the nerve to claim that we had no history). yes, we did rape the native americans, but i didn't do it personally. and yes, our president's administration is taking the lead role in destroying the world.
however.
while i have to say, yes and yes and yes. i also comeback by saying, "and what about your country? blair is no better. he is worse. he chooses to wait on hand and foot and do whatever the US administration says." i find it difficult when people feel they have to tell me that my country is very bad and doing very wrong things when their country isn't innocent of doing wrong, either. however, at least their country doesn't deny global warming.
interestingly enough, i found myself in a reverse role recently. i was talking to an acquaintance about the bush administration. it was the first time, in a long time, that i had allowed myself to be part of a heated political discussion. this guy, who was the same age me, was defending the president for going into iraq and toppling the hussein regime. i said, "yes but what about the 600,000 some-odd civilians that were reported dead as a result of the occupation?" anyhow, i won't go into detail about the argument but he couldn't see how appointing tony snow as the press secretary was wrong. he also thought that the people in the middle east just wanted to blow things up. all i could say was that i was sorry that he felt the way he did about my government and i also mentioned that my "forefathers" wrote that if we didn't like our government, we could overthrow it (unlike in england where they celebrate guy fawkes day, where they burn an effigy of the man who tried to overthrow parliament) and start a new one.
it is funny, but it seems like i do a lot more talking about the US administration outside of the country than when i was in the country. i feel like i walk around with a sign that says, "tell me why my country is wrong. i am dumb and ignorant and need to be enlightened."
returning to colbert and stewart, though, i sometimes find myself so surprised at how influential they have become. i used to watch the daily show back when kilborn was the host. in those days i always confused, colbert, roco, and carrell. of course, i was just a middle school kid then and i would only catch the next day reruns when i was home sick from school. when stewart took over the show, i was upset. i thought kilborn was really funny and i didn't think that stewart was funny at all. i remember the advertisements during this "transitional period" and for some reason he was in a helicopter...
needless to say, after a while he really grew on me. although, i was always a casual viewer, watching a rerun here or there. i suppose like everyone else, there was a point when i realised that the news wasn't really news at all. it was all a game and i was being played by the media machine. so i gave up on television news. then i rediscovered the daily show and soon after the colbert report was born, and i realised that fake news was really the only reliable news source on television because they didn't care and they don't care still.
i guess that goes back to what i was saying about caring about voting and making your voice heard. maybe we think we have a lot to lose but we really don't. if at this point we feel like our vote doesn't matter, then what does it matter if it seems like we are just "throwing away" our votes? we're already doing it by voting for someone we don't really care for.
so the moral of the story is...stop caring. have a nice day.
1 Comments:
yep. caring kills.
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